In an era when players come and go each season, Alex Poythress took the traditional four-year route. One of only two scholarship players to play four seasons under John Calipari at Kentucky, Poythress has had a roller coaster of a career since becoming a Wildcat in the fall of 2012, the season following UK's national title run. Nearly every high and low in college basketball, Poythress has experienced it. Every joy and pain, he's felt it. Dominate, he's done it. Disappear, he's done that at times, too. He has seen two Final Fours in three seasons, but not without a trip to the NIT first. He started 31 of 33 games as a true freshman, earning All-SEC honors; but took a smaller role as the team's sixth man as a sophomore. In 2014-15, arguably the most fun season in the history of Kentucky basketball, Poythress watched from the sideline with a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered in an early December practice. His presence was deeply missed in the heartbreaking semifinal loss. Needless to say, it has been a long and eventful ride for Alex Poythress, and on Saturday, he will play one last game in Rupp Arena in front of the home crowd. A pregame Senior Day ceremony will honor him and only him. It will be Alex Poythress Day in Lexington, one final goodbye to a fan favorite. But before we send him off to his last postseason and whatever life holds next, a look back at his career:  

The Recruitment

A native of Clarksville, Tn., Alex Poythress received heavy, heavy interest from nearby Vanderbilt early on. In fact, Vanderbilt was believed to be his landing spot throughout most of his recruitment. However, John Calipari and Kentucky came calling in the summer before Poythress' senior season and stole the attention and momentum from the Commodores. He received his UK scholarship offer on July, 25, 2011 and took an official visit to Big Blue Madness a couple of months later. On November 10, 2011, Poythress announced his commitment to the University of Kentucky, picking the Cats over Vandy, Florida and Memphis, with offers from several other programs. He compared the decision to a break-up, telling a local newspaper, "It's a nerve-wracking experience because you've got relationships with the head coaches. It's like breaking up with a girlfriend, really. You don't want to do it, but you have to sometimes." He signed his Letter of Intent that day. At the time of his commitment, Kentucky hadn't even begun its 2011-2012 run. Poythress committed and signed the day before the first game of that title season, becoming one of three early signees in what was eventually the No. 1 ranked class in 2012. John Calipari, officially announcing the addition of his new five-star forward, said, "When Alex is at his best, because of his size and athleticism, he’s as good as anybody in the country. He is really athletic, and when he’s got his motor running, he can score at will.” Off the court, Poythress was a standout student at Clarkville's Northeast High School. He reportedly scored a 29 on the ACT with a 3.95 GPA; and when he wasn't studying, he worked part-time at Wendy's. "I hated making the wraps, like the Caesar wraps, because I had to cut up the chicken," he once admitted. "The wraps are horrible." Poythress' employee status with Wendy's did not keep him from earning McDonald's All-American honors his senior year. He was both a McDonald's and a Parade All-American, while being named Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year in the state of Tennessee. Rivals.com ranked him the eighth overall player in the class. He graduated from Northeast High with over 2,000 career points and averages of 30.1 points, 11.1 rebounds, 4.3 blocks, 2.0 assists, and 1.5 steals per game in his senior season. His incoming message for Big Blue Nation: Courage doesn't always roar.

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Freshman Season

Excitement in Lexington was rampant in the fall of 2012, when Poythress and fellow newcomers Nerlens Noel, Archie Goodwin and Willie Cauley-Stein set out to defend UK's title. Joined by Kyle Wiltjer, Kentucky's leading returning scorer, and two transfers in Ryan Harrow and Julius Mays, they began the year ranked No. 3 in the polls and as the feature of a three-part, behind-the-scenes ESPN feature series called All-Access: Kentucky. Things would not go as planned that year, unfortunately. The 2012-13 Cats opened the year in Brooklyn with a tough win against a Maryland team that featured Alex Len, a future fifth-overall pick. Jarrod Polson was the unlikely hero in that game, although Poythress held his own in his college debut with eight points and seven rebounds while playing in foul trouble. Ninth-ranked Duke was up next on the schedule, in Atlanta, and that is when UK picked up the first of its 12 losses in 2012-13, but not for a lack of effort from Poythress. He played what still may be his best game at Kentucky, scoring a team-high 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting with a team-high eight rebounds against a loaded Blue Devil frontcourt. Poythress followed that game up with 22 points on a 9-for-10 night against Lafayette in Rupp Arena, earning him SEC Freshman of the Week honors and becoming Kentucky's first freshman with consecutive 20-point efforts since Brandon Knight in February 2011. Then another 20-pointer came against Morehead, and 22 more against Long Island to make it four straight. At that time, ESPN's Chad Ford named Poythress one of five players who could go first overall in the 2013 NBA Draft.

"I do think Alex Poythress is a potential sleeper pick as the No. 1 pick. Of all the players I've seen so far, he's been the most impressive and I think many NBA scouts agree with that." - Chad Ford, ESPN

Things would cool off for Poythress soon after Ford's endorsement. He scored only three points with two rebounds in a loss at Notre Dame, and 13 points with five turnovers in a loss to Baylor, coming in back-to-back games. With the fan base up in arms over a three-loss team, he and some of his teammates deleted their Twitter accounts, in part because of negative tweets sent directly to them. But even with two bad games and crazy people in his inbox, Poythress' stock remained high as other mock drafts caught on and projected him in the top three picks. And when Kentucky finished the non-conference slate at 9-4, with Cal's first loss to Louisville, Poythress had fallen but was still a top-10 prospect. Then we began to hear words like "inconsistency" and "assertiveness" -- words that are still around today. After underperforming in Kentucky's SEC opener, a very narrow win over Vanderbilt (Poythress' ex-girlfriend), Calipari said, “I was very clear with Alex after the game. Either you want to change or you don’t.” The very next game, Kentucky lost to unranked Texas A&M at home. It would lose again, at Alabama, 10 days later, to fall to 12-6 on the year. Poythress fouled out with six points in that one. Critics began to surface and the national media wondered if Kentucky, a Final Four sleeper pick only weeks before, was a tournament team at all. Then the worst thing that could happen, happened: Nerlens Noel suffered a season-ending injury at Florida. The Wildcats became a completely different team, dropping four of the last eight games of the season. Poythress reached double figures on only two occasions during that stretch. The defending national champions went on to lose to Vanderbilt in a quarterfinal SEC tournament game, and to Robert Morris in the opening round of the NIT. Despite falling off toward the end of the year, Poythress was still considered a borderline top-20 pick, late first-rounder at worst. He had a decision to make about his future.

"I'm really happy that, after talking with his family and evaluating his options, Alex has decided to return for his sophomore season." - John Calipari

He decided to come back to join a monster recruiting class that, once again, had the highest of expectations.  

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Sophomore Season

The 2014 recruiting class stole most of the headlines during the summer of 2013, with fans clinging to each update about Julius Randle, the Harrison Twins, Dakari Johnson, and Marcus Lee. In August, Calipari predicted that Randle and the Twins would be the leaders of the group, whereas he wanted Alex to "just play." Regardless, Alex and Willie Cauley-Stein were the ones on the front of Athlon Sports' College Basketball Preview, and Alex also made the front of Lindy's College Basketball Preview: (Athlon cover: Photo by Matt Hernandez, design by Matt Taliaferro) According to Cal, Alex's work ethic was much improved heading into the 2013-2014 season, and it showed in the first game when Alex scored 10 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, only his second career double-double at the time. Alex thrived in his sixth man role early on, coming off the bench against to score 12 against Mississippi State, with all five of his field goals dunks: https://www.instagram.com/p/i70sBJCeb5/ Through the first month of SEC play, Alex was on a roll, scoring in double figures in six of ten games. After Kentucky lost to LSU in late January, Alex called a players-only meeting at the hotel in Baton Rouge to get the team back on track, a good example of the behind-the-scenes leadership that Alex has provided throughout his career. The Cats would still have a few hiccups in regular season play (remember the loss at South Carolina?), but by the postseason, they were a totally different group thanks in part to Alex's contributions off the bench. Most will remember Aaron Harrison's heroics during Kentucky's 2014 Tournament run, but no one played a bigger role in Kentucky's comeback win over Louisville in the Sweet 16 than Alex. With seven minutes left, Alex threw down a dunk to fire up the team and cut Louisville's lead to five; finished an and-one to send Montrezl Harrell to the bench; and hit the free throw that gave Kentucky the lead.

"Alex Poythress won the game for us." -- John Calipari after Kentucky's Sweet 16 win over Louisville

Alex's play during the Louisville game was great, but Alex's dunk over Sam Dekker in the Final Four was the stuff of legend: Before that game, Calipari predicted that if Kentucky did something special, Alex would be why. Aaron Harrison's three got most of the attention, but Alex's performance was huge. Like he did vs. Louisville, he brought the Cats back in to the game, scoring four crucial points and grabbing two huge rebounds in the final five minutes, which was enough to earn this embrace from Calipari afterwards: Remember when Alex got tangled up at the bottom of the celebration dog pile at midcourt and limped off? So do a few premature gray hairs on my head. Thankfully, Alex was fine. After the season was over, Alex weighed his NBA options once again, and because he was so close to getting his degree, decided to return to school for his junior season.

“Playing in the NBA has always been a dream of mine, but I want to make sure that I’m NBA-ready before I make that jump,” Poythress said. “By coming back, I’ll be so much closer to earning my degree in business and it will give me another year to prepare my game and my body for the next level.”

Willie Cauley-Stein, the Harrison Twins, Dakari Johnson, and Marcus Lee joined him, vaulting expectations for the 2014-2015 season to epic proportions.  

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Junior Season

Poythress was one of the stars of UK's Bahamas tour, and considering the roster, that's saying something. Poythress led UK in scoring in the six exhibition games, averaging 11.8 points per game along with 5.7 rebounds. Coming into year three, his confidence was sky high, and Kenny Payne couldn't have been prouder.

“I’m proud of Alex. Alex is playing unbelievable. He just has to continue to play with confidence. I’m not surprised at all. Again, I said it the other day: He came back to show people that he’s one of the best forwards in the country. As of today, he’s showing it. He’s showing it. His skills have gotten better. He made two threes today. He’s rebounding the ball. He’s playing with confidence. We can’t ask anymore of him.”

As the season got closer, Sports Illustrated thought so much of Alex that they put him on the cover of their College Basketball Preview: About a month and a half later, we would learn that Alex was indeed the victim of the infamous Sports Illustrated cover jinx. Two days before Kentucky's showdown with North Carolina, Alex tore his ACL in practice. The injury ended his season, and instead of playing alongside his brothers on one of the best runs in college basketball history, Alex cheered them on from the bench. Still part of a team, but heartbreaking all the same.

“I miss it a lot. I’d give up the world to still be playing, but injuries come with playing basketball, so you just gotta overcome.” -- Alex Poythress, March 2015

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"] @JenNimePalumbo[/caption] After Kentucky's run was over, Alex decided to come back for his senior year. It couldn't have been easy for Alex to see seven of his teammates declare for the NBA Draft, but he vowed to come back and "be a part of something special"...and oh, yeah, get his masters degree. Alex, a standout student, received his bachelors degree after three years last May:

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Senior Season

A Kentucky senior in the John Calipari era is kind of an oxymoron, but Alex is just that, and by the time September came around, he was back on the court working out with the rest of the squad. From the get-go, it was very clear this was Tyler Ulis' team, but Alex was expected to play a critical role, not only as a veteran, but as a reliable post presence. To hammer that message home, Ulis and Alex shared the cover of the Athlon Sports College Basketball Preview. A few months later, Alex was very close to landing his second Sports Illustrated cover, but got bumped for the Kansas City Royals. (Athlon cover: Photo by Matt Hernandez) Early on, it looked like Alex was going to live up to those lofty expectations. Alex came close to a double-double against Duke with 9 points and 7 rebounds, but it was his tooth getting caught on the net during a dunk that went viral:   Looking back, this photo is still incredible:   [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="630"] JONATHAN DANIEL VIA GETTY IMAGES[/caption] Since then, Alex has been, well, Alex: an incredibly talented and explosive player, who, when he's engaged and playing with passion, is unstoppable. Case and point: his 25-point performance at Alabama in January. Alex dominated that game, showing us all the type of player he's capable of being, finishing at the basket, rebounding, and hitting his free throws. Calipari called his performance "unbelievable." Games like that are what make Alex's bouts of inconsistency so frustrating. To be fair, Kentucky's frontcourt is a total mess this season, which doesn't make things any easier on him. Alex also gave us all a scare when he missed six games after injuring his other knee (the non-surgically repaired one), which was especially cruel timing since he was coming off a string of promising performances. There are still games in which Alex doesn't show up -- at Vandy and at LSU come to mind -- but just when the Big Blue Nation's frustrations with him came to a boiling point, he turned in a double double at Florida on Tuesday. Wash, rinse, repeat. With one game left in Rupp Arena and possibly ten more in his college career, how will Alex be remembered? As the Academic All-American who overcame a major knee injury to give Kentucky fans some of best memories of the Calipari Era? Or the one-time potential number one draft pick who never lived up to expectations? We'll go with the former, but as we've learned over the past four years, it really is up to Alex.